Monthly Archives: March 2014

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Do you think cooking is the same today as a couple of decades ago? Just new combinations of the same old ingredients? Then you haven’t studied the frontier of modernistic cuisine! There are many new scientific approaches to cooking now a days, and one of them is called “Reverse Spherification”. By using sodium alginate ( which come from seaweeds ) and calcium lactate gluconate ( salt of calcium ) you can make any liquids into spheres that will burst open with flavors in your mouth. How about yuzu spheres, carbonated mojito spheres, pear elderflower spheres, spherical yogurt, spherical mozzarella, or even spherical olives, only your fantasy sets the limits. So watch this video tutorial from Molecular Gastronomy and take your first step into high tech cooking!

In special FX, actors teeth often has to look different. It could be as simple as painting on discoloration or as complex as doing a scary set of false teeth, made to perfectly fit inside the actors mouth. This video deals with the latter. Mark Viniello from Stan Winston School demonstrates how a teeth mould and finally a cast of the teeth are made from sodium alginate and dental stone. This cast can then be used as a base when building up materials on it, to resemble the scary FX teeth. Sodium alginate is in general a very interesting material that can be used for many crafting projects, we doubt this is the last time you will see it mentioned on our site.

Whether you are making a cosplay costume, props, model figurines or anything else with a metallic look, you might want to scuff them up to make them look worn and old. This short video from Stan Winston School shows exactly how to do this in a cheap, simple and quick way that still gives you a very realistic effect. Isn’t it amazing how easy some things can be?

In this vintage video from Stan Winston School, film director and FX designer, Stephen Norrington (Blade, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) explains how he built the chestburster mechanism used in the ALIEN movie and how pleased he was about the result. The motions made through these techniques are gorgeously realistic and the simplicity of the mechanism is nothing but genius. If you plan to make very small animatronic puppets, this video is an absolute must-see for you. These mechanisms could be used for anything from small snakes to tentacles and much more!

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